A prominent human rights watchdog on Tuesday lashed out on the authorities of the Middle Eastern and North African countries for failing to protect migrants, including economic ones, from systematic abuse of their human rights through discrimination, forcible deportation and arbitrary detentions.
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th December, 2018) A prominent human rights watchdog on Tuesday lashed out on the authorities of the middle Eastern and North African countries for failing to protect migrants, including economic ones, from systematic abuse of their human rights through discrimination, forcible deportation and arbitrary detentions.
"Governments across MENA [the Middle East and Northern Africa] are abysmally failing to protect migrants living in or passing through their countries, fuelling shocking levels of abuse," Amnesty International's MENA research and advocacy director, Philip Luther, said as quoted by the watchdog's official website.
According to the watchdog, migrants crossing or arriving in such countries as Algeria, Bahrain, Israel, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates risk facing mass and unlawful expulsion, physical abuse, arbitrary arrests and exploitation at work.
"While pressure on governments in the Gulf is in some cases forcing reforms to legal frameworks for migrant workers, they need to do much more to improve protection in practice. Meanwhile, North African governments should be facing more heat for their discriminatory crackdowns to stem irregular migration that have seen tens of thousands arbitrarily rounded up, detained in often horrific conditions and sometimes unlawfully expelled en masse," Luther added.
On December 18, the International Migrants Day is celebrated.
